Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radio communication device, a radio communication system, a radio communication method, and a program.
Description of the Related Art
Recently, a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) system typified by IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.11 has become widespread in place of wired networks, because of an advantage that the degree of freedom of the device is high. For example, as described in JP-A-2008-283590, a wireless LAN system defined by IEEE 802.11 includes an access point which operates as a master device, and a group of radio communication devices including multiple stations each operating as a slave device, and multiple stations are connected to one access point.
Here, there can be considered the following two paths in the case of performing communication between the multiple slave devices. One is a path which connects the stations via the access point, and the other is a path which directly connects the stations with each other without routing through the access point. In general, the latter path which directly connects the stations with each other is more advantageous than the former path which connects stations via the access point, from the viewpoints of a transmission rate, transmission delay, and an effective utilization of a radio band.
Further, in the case of using the path which directly connects the slave devices with each other, the following two connection modes are suggested. One is IEEE 802.11z (Tunneled Direct Link Setup; hereinafter, referred to as TDLS) which is defined by IEEE, and the other is Wi-Fi Direct which is defined by Wi-Fi Alliance. TDLS is a mode in which direct communication is performed between the slave devices after the slave devices are connected via the access point. On the other hand, Wi-Fi Direct is a mode in which direct communication between the slave devices can be performed even when the slave devices are not connected to the access point.
Wi-Fi Direct is more advantageous than TDLS from the viewpoint that, even in the case where the connection to the access point is not permitted for network security reasons, Wi-Fi Direct can establish connection between only devices that require communication. However, in Wi-Fi Direct, it is necessary that one of the slave devices operates in the same manner as a master device, and hence, Wi-Fi Direct is inferior to TDLS from the viewpoints of an effective utilization of a radio band and a power consumption of the device serving as a master device.